Cast & Creative Team Set for Sanaz Toossi's ENGLISH at The Old Globe

The Old Globe has revealed the full cast and creative team for the critically-acclaimed play English. Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize, the Obie Award, and the Lucille Lortel Award, the play is written by Sanaz Toossi (Playwrights Horizons’ Wish You Were Here, Amazon Original’s A League of Their Own) and will be directed by Arya Shahi(PigPen Theatre Co.). English plays at the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, from January 27 to February 18, 2024, with the official opening night on Thursday, February. 1. Tickets go on sale Friday, January 5 at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE (234-5623), and in person at The Old Globe’s Box Office in Balboa Park (1363 Old Globe Way). 

In a classroom near Tehran, four adult students prepare for an English proficiency exam. They each have a reason for being there: a chance at opportunity, access, or a new calling. But as they bond over this new way to express themselves, they also grapple with the lives they must leave behind. Told with hilarious wit and genuine compassion, Toossi’s English is “both a buoyant comedy of communication and a subtle but probing exploration of what it means to speak and feel understood” (New York Theatre Guide).

“English, winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama is an especially compelling play and one we’re very proud to bring to San Diego,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein.  “Sanaz Toossi shows us the everyday lives of everyday people in Iran, a society Americans know all too little about. Toossi introduces us to them as they struggle to learn English so that they can go abroad, and her very smart play is about the relationship between language and identity and the way language defines our notions of home. English is a witty, inventive work that’s highly theatrical, thought-provoking, and touching, and, in director Arya Shahi’s imaginative production, it’s just thrilling to watch.”

The cast for English includes Mary Apick as Roya (Beneath the Veil, Dead End), Ari Derambakhsh as Goli (Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s English, Twelfth Night at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London), Tara Grammy as Elham (Mahmoud – New York City Fringe, Best Solo Performance; A Simple Wedding), Pooya Mohseni as Marjan (Ensemble Studio Theatre’s The Good Muslim, Baltimore Center Stage’s The White Snake), and Joe Joseph as Omid (Broadway’s The Kite Runner, Broadway’s The Band’s Visit). 

Also, joining Toossi and Shahi as part of the creative team for the Globe’s production of Englishare Sadra Tehrani (Scenic Design), Afsaneh Aayani (Costume Design), Amanda Zieve (Lighting Design), Megumi Katayama (Sound Design), Caparelliotis Casting (Casting), and Chandra R.M. Anthenill (Production Stage Manager).

Ticket prices for English start at $33 and go on sale Friday, January 5. Performances for the four-week limited engagement run January 27 – February 18, 2024, with the official press opening on Thursday, February 1 at 8:00 p.m. Visit www.TheOldGlobe.org for a full schedule and additional information.

The Tony Award–winning The Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional nonprofit regional theatres. Now in its 89th year, the Globe is San Diego’s flagship performing arts institution, and it serves a vibrant community with theatre as a public good. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and the Audrey S. Geisel Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 16 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages, including its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people annually attend Globe productions and participate in the theatre’s artistic and arts engagement programs. Its nationally prominent Arts Engagement Department provides an array of participatory programs that make theatre matter to more people in neighborhoods throughout the region. Humanities programs at the Globe and around the city broaden the community’s understanding of theatre art in all its forms. The Globe also boasts a range of new play development programs with professional and community-based writers, as well as the renowned The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Numerous world premieres—such as 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Bright Star, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! —have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.

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